If they flow well, with all joined clauses strictly relevant, long sentences can be very pretty. Poe used a lot of them, and a lot of semi-colons,...
I appreciate semi-colons for the role they often play in taking sentences to great lengths. I've heard tell that using many of them is seen as...
I think having a prologue in the first person can contribute in a nice way to suspension of disbelief, as in the example given by the OP with "The...
Separate names with a comma.